


Little Talks

by Katstories



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Brothers need love, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Siblings, Splinter you still screwed up your boys, Tears, This was a lot more painful than I expected, Underage Drinking, siblings communicating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-28 21:48:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16250447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katstories/pseuds/Katstories
Summary: So after the final battle the boys sit down and really talk about it all.





	Little Talks

**Author's Note:**

> I've been watching a lot of the 2012 final episodes and I just could not get over Splinter's treatment of the not-Leo and Karai kids.  
> So this sort of sprung up from all that emotional turmoil that was never taken care of.

The fourth carafe stood solemnly next to its dead siblings, steam still gently wafting out of its wooden mouth. 

Mikey thinks that sake is probably one of the foulest tasting alcohols he had the displeasure of drinking, though honestly, it wasn’t like they had had the opportunity to try anything else.

The little wooden lacquered set had been pulled out of Master Splinter’s private stash and the liquor shared among mutterings and sniffles. The consensus between them, after Leo’s suggestion, had been to get as shit faced as possible and wallow in misery until they passed out. 

So far, the shit faced drunk part had been achieved. 

Wallowing in misery also seemed to have been achieved, at least by Leo. Though Donnie figured he was a close second with Mikey and Raph struggling to achieve at least a little mirth in what would probably be their one and only excursion into blitzedville. 

At his brothers request, since they hadn’t been there at the end, Leo drunkenly recants his final battle between him and Shredder. With Raph adding in his parts of the story, especially relishing the part where he slammed Shredder’s face into the steam pipes. 

Leo’s solemn words had lapsed into Japanese and so Mikey, Raph and Donnie found themselves quietly conversing in their native language. Donnie found it soothing, comforting. Japanese had been the only language in use until they met April. 

Things had been so much simpler when they were younger and the horrors of the above world were still unknown. There were often moments when Donnie had wished they had never gone Topside. Things had been so much simpler when all they knew was the world below. 

Granted they wouldn’t have had so many interesting adventures and met such fantastic people, Honeycutt and especially his sweet Chinchilla, April. But still, it was bitter and recalling some of their adventures left a sour taste in his mouth. 

The four lapsed into silence as Leo finished recanting his tale. Donnie noticed that Mikey and Raph were quietly holding onto each other sniffling and tears welling up from their eyes.

Especially Mikey, the tears had barely stopped since the funeral. He had held off his sorrow with iron determination when they attacked Shredder, but now that it was all over, Mikey’s grief was overwhelming and Raph, who had somehow remained stoic throughout the whole ordeal, had finally broken down and was sobbing. 

Mikey sniffles and asks, “Leo-chan, why did Papa only speak with you? Didn’t he want to talk to us too?” 

Leo’s reply catches in his throat. Those exact thoughts have been running through his head just hours ago, how Splinter had pulled him aside before the battle and then had appeared in visions after the funeral and during the final battle. He couldn’t for the life of him, understand how their father could have chosen to ignore the rest of his children. It grated on his nerves, it made him feel uncomfortable, that being singled out by their father somehow made him more special than the rest of them. 

He resented Splinter for that, for making them feel unworthy. He never would have survived if it hadn’t been for them fighting as hard as they had. Donnie and his retro-mutagen weakening Shredder, for Raph fighting like a madman, for Mikey’s unorthodox and spontaneous attacks. 

“I don’t know Otouto, I don’t know.” Leo leans over and hugs Mikey. “I don’t know why he came to me. Maybe in those final days, I suppose, because I think, I sought him out.” 

Mikey buries his head into Leo’s shoulder. “Didn’t he love us too? Why couldn’t he have told us weeks ago, about his vision, it’s not like I wouldn’t have listened! I would have been good, I swear I would have listened!” Mikey hiccups and falls into tears again.

“There are times I don’t think that Dad liked us as much as he did you Leo.” Came Raph’s muffled voice. Raphael is face down in his cup, talking to the table. “I mean I know I was never a great son, hell, I know Dad hated me sometimes; but still it sucks he couldn’t take the time to tell us something. I mean at least Donnie and Mikey could have had a goodbye, even if I didn’t deserve to.” 

Leo’s breath caught in his throat. He had known, well suspected really, that Raph suffered from feelings of inadequacy. But to hear that Raph thought Splinter hadn’t loved him broke his heart.

Donnie gasped, he had no idea that Raph had felt like that. Raph had always been difficult, but to think he was somehow unworthy of their father’s love? That just didn’t compute. 

“Raphie-kun don’t say that, you can’t say that! Father loved all of us even if he didn’t know how to show it all the time,” Donnie says trying to reassure his brother, possibly even reassuring himself. “He raised us, nurtured us and taught us everything he knew. All without any outside aid and I’m sure raising four mutant boys was never easy. But he showed us love in many ways. I’m sure that he wasn’t holding anything back from us, from any of us. I think it was hard for him to show his love sometimes. Just like it is for you Raphie-kun.” 

Mikey fell back into Raph’s arms. “You love us so much Raph. You do so much for us to keep us safe!” Mikey nuzzled into Raph’s neck, more tears dripping into his collarbone. “You’re always the first one in, the first one to take a hit, the last to leave. All because you’re afraid of us being hurt.” 

“We know that you yelling and stuff is how you express your feelings. Sometimes their too intense for you and you lash out.” Leo reached over and rubbed the top of Raph’s head, earning a halfhearted swat at Leo’s hand. “You’ve proven time and time again that you want what’s best for the team. Which is why you always argue with me.”   
Raphael has the good grace to blush. “Still sucks though, he couldn’t take the time to talk to us.” Raphael murmured. 

Donnie nods, “yea, it still sucks. But I think he must have believed we couldn’t have handled it well.” Raph looked up from the table, drunken confusion clearly written on his face. Mikey untangled himself from Raph to look at Donnie. Donnie tisks and takes a swallow of his sake before continuing. “If Dad had visions, like the day before he fell in the Underground, he was worrying about it then. He knew that this was coming, somehow.” Donnie licks his lips and sucks on them briefly, thinking hard, damn his alcohol addled brain. “If Dad had told us outright that he was seeing visions of his death, each of us would have gone out of our minds trying to figure out ways of stopping it from happening. Raph would probably have gone out looking for more Foot to pound, Leo would have gone nuts and trained more and then gone off on his own too. I would have tried making something to keep him safe, or detected the attacks, or something and gone off the deep end trying to figure out ways to keep him safe. And Mikey.” Donnie looked at Mikey, who’s huge eyes were swimming with tears. 

“I would have tried to keep him safe and probably of gotten myself killed trying to hunt down Foot like Raph and Leo.” Mikey sniffled. Leo looked at Mikey confused, “aw come on now Leo you know if I get an idea in my head I’ll do it. So, I would have figured, like you and Raph that bringing the fight to Shredder would be the way to keep Papa safe; and I probably would have gotten myself killed.” 

Donnie filled his cup and took another drink, “so you see, we would have found Shredder before we were ready. We wouldn’t have worked as a team, we wouldn’t have taken April and Casey and we would have all died in the process. Or you three would have died leaving me behind and Sensei would have gone insane with grief. Instead it’s the other way around.” Donnie pours another cup and raises it up high, “so now we’re orphans but our enemies are dead and we are victorious.” Donnie snorts, “kampai,” and drinks his sake. 

Mikey dives into Donnie’s chest and crushes his brother in a hug, more tears streaming from his eyes and blubbering words into Donnie’s plastron. Donnie smiles weakly and pets Mikey’s head and mumbles comforting words to the youngest. 

Leo slammed back his sake to get rid of the bad taste in his mouth. “I don’t want to be in charge, I just want to be your brother. I know that Otousan had these expectations of me, but I can’t be clan leader and Sensei and father.” Leo scoffs, “what the shell did he mean by father? It’s not like I’ve got any special skills at being the responsible idiot out of this group.”

He carefully poured another round into his cup, some sake sloshed over anyway. “I’m certainly not full of great ideas lately, I’ve done nothing but screw up. I’m lucky I didn’t get us killed a few times over.” Leo’s expression sours as he chews on his thoughts. “I want to know what you want from me guys. I need to know.” Leo’s gaze travels from Raph to Donnie finally landing on Mikey’s almost prone form.

“What do we want?” Mikey looks at Leo confused, “I want you to be my Aniki. If we don’t gotta fight no more then be my brother. No more fighting, no more crazy solo stunts. Be my brother first.” Mikey’s hand fishes towards another cup of sake, which Raph pulls from his reach. Mikey lunges at Raph’s hand, spills the cup across Raph’s plastron and earns himself a soft plunk on his head. Raph begrudgingly pours Mikey another cup and hands it to him. 

Raph looks at Leo, really looks at him. “I like Oniisan. But I understand you must be our Sensei in the martial arts too, but you’re never going to be our Father. That position was filled, so I don’t know what Dad was talking about. But yea, just stick with brother and Sensei if you have too.” Raph nods, “I promise I won’t give you too hard a time now.” And for a moment a small smile passes over the hothead’s face, he’s obviously pleased. 

Donnie takes a sip of an empty cup and frowns. His eyes scan blearily over his siblings before he takes a deep breath, exhaling through his nostrils, obviously unhappy about his current thought process. “I want you to be my brother. But there is a problem with that.” 

Leo’s brow creases, “what do you mean by that?” 

“Shredder may be dead but the other mutants are still out there.” Donnie frowns, “as much as I hope to Buddha that Tiger Claw and the rest of them leave us the hell alone, I very much doubt that will happen.” 

Raph and Leo look at each other, frowning. Mikey slides down into Leo’s lap, a puddle of turtle. “Crap.” He says, which pretty much sums up the situation. 

“Aw, Donnie, I coulda done without thinking about that.” Raph moans and flops backwards onto his shell. “So much for the no leader thing.” 

Donnie waves his hands, catching their attention. “But maybe we can come to a peace? What if we get Miwa to talk with them, maybe we can come to terms and leave us and the city alone.” He shrugs, “I mean it’s worth a shot.” Donnie grabs his knees and curls around them. 

“I just want us to be left alone. Let us get to know Miwa, let her learn about us. Maybe just, you know, let us lives our lives in peace.” Leo leans backwards into the red beanbag and stares at the ceiling. He gently pats Mikey’s head since his still curled up in his lap. “Guys, I think it’s worth a shot to see if we can come to a peace. I mean Xever and Razar and the others gotta be tired of fighting all the time.” Leo tilts his head and looks up at Donnie, “maybe you can whip up another batch of retro-mutagen and cure them all?” 

Donnie shrugs non-committaly, “maybe, I gotta see if we can hunt up some more mutagen. Otherwise I’m out.”   
Raph lays down on the blue beanbag, “we could probably start hunting down around the warehouse district where the Kraang used to be. See if there’s any left. If not, maybe we could hit up Bishop and the rest of the squids for their supply from Dimension X?”   
Donnie crawls over and leans on Raph’s thighs, making a pillow of the hard muscle within. 

“Yea, I didn’t think about that. We might be able to get more from Bishop. Maybe we could use that to broker a peace treaty.” 

“Peace would be nice,” Mikey mumbles, clearly losing his battle with alcohol induced unconsciousness. 

“Yea, peace would be nice,” Leo agrees. He tilts his head up straining to look at Raph and Donnie. “So, then it’s settled. We try and get the supplies to make retro-mutagen and we try like hell to get a peace deal.” Leo settles back down into the beanbag, “I’m tired of fighting.” 

Mikey’s response is a light snore. Leo laughs and gently pets his Ototo’s head. “maybe then I can just be Brother again.” 

Donnie raises his hand, “I concur.” 

“Here. Here.” Raph adds, covering his own yawn. 

 

oooOOOooo

 

Tiger Claw looks at the horizon, thick storm clouds roll overhead hiding the dying rays of the sun. Rain is once again threatening to flood the archeological dig he presides over. Suddenly, there is a commotion from below and a triumphant shout rings up from the pit. A lone worker climbs up a ladder and quickly approaches Tiger Claw.

“You have something?”

“Yes lord.” The man replies and he rummages through the bag at his side. He pulls forth a large bundle of dirty linen and hands it to Tiger Claw. 

Tiger Claw carefully takes the package from him, walks to the table behind them and slowly begins to unwrap the object. A hush falls through the forest when a bound hexagonal box the size of a dinner plate is revealed. With the utmost care, Tiger Claw removes the bindings and opens the box revealing an engraved stone plate within. 

“Ah,” Tiger Claw breathes, “the seal of Kavaxas, King of the Demogorgons.” His gaze wanders over a velum scroll laid out and held in place by stones. “At last I have the means to raise Master Shredder from the dead and the end the hated Turtles once and for all.”

Lightning flashes above as Tiger Claw turns and addresses the crowd of mutants before him.

“Make ready. We return to New York tonight.”


End file.
